Editor’s Note: The Albumism staff has selected what we believe to be the 100 Greatest Soundtracks of All Time, representing a varied cross-section of films and musical genres. Click “Next Soundtrack” below to explore each soundtrack in the list or for easier navigation, view the full introduction & soundtrack index here.

Purple Rain
Warner Bros. (1984)
Selected by Andy Healy

Purple Rain the album and the movie go hand in hand, a set of audio and visual conjoined twins never to be separated. As a standalone set, the music is without peer, but it’s hard not to hear the album and not see the movie. The music of Purple Rain is paired with the energetic live performance pieces etched into the mind by the movie. When you hear “Dearly beloved…,” do you picture Prince’s silhouette bathed in light? When you hear “The Beautiful Ones,” do you not see Prince writhing around on stage? And when the album closes with its trifecta of live performance pieces in “I Would Die 4 You”/“Baby I’m A Star”/“Purple Rain,” can you separate the performance mastery witnessed in the movie?

I can’t. It’s why Purple Rain lives on as one of the most exciting Original Motion Picture Soundtracks in history.

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